Tuesday, November 5, 2013
“In one swoop all my Flowers were torn up by the roots and lay about me—scattered, broken, trampled … ”
From Ivan Turgenev’s novel First Love, for Sheri Gee of The Folio Society. The frame story opens with a brief scene in which three Russian gentlemen propose to amuse themselves by recounting the stories of their first loves. The protagonist, Vladimir, recounts the memory of his very unusual first love when he was 16 years old. In the narrative, Vladimir is very young and knows nothing about love. When he meets Zinaida, a beautiful 21-year-old woman, he is struck with her beauty and grace. She fails to reciprocate Vladimir’s love. The story has a tragic conclusion.
